Last Day Parade – Driving at 90 MPH

I listened to this album. First impression? It wasn’t worth my time. Not wanting to just write it off I listened again, and again, and again. It grew on me. Still not the best album, but definitely not the worst.

The guitar parts aren’t super-technical but they aren’t your typical ‘I learned how to play the guitar 2 weeks ago’ hardcore riffs. They have depth, sometimes speed, and sometimes groove. They can create very nice harmonies and then go off into dissonance. Not to mention the pretty clean passages that shift gears and is suddenly loud and in your face.

The vocals are a bit abrasive. They get themselves noticed, but don’t quite annoy you. This could all be a problem of being too far in front of the mix. The vocalist also felt the need to sing. I don’t find singing on a hardcore CD to be a bad thing. There were just some parts where even I could tell that it was off key, and that’s never good.

The CD is six tracks long. The fifth track is pointless, making the CD only five good tracks long. Track five has this guitar part that reminded me of Snailhuntr (remember them?). Then there were some drums and bass. Underneath all that was a voice speaking urgently. Not singing, screaming, yelling, or rapping. They were speaking. What about? I couldn’t tell you. It was too far underneath all the other stuff in the mix, so unless I’m listening super closely all I really hear is the repetitive music.

For the most part this CD is good with a few minor flaws. They aren’t doing anything really new (they do, however, have a horn on the intro to one of the tracks), but they aren’t doing anything bad either. Last Day Parade is putting out some mildly interesting hardcore that may be worth some of your hard earned cash.